iPad Goes Global as PC Market Grows on Strong Tablet Sales

Research firm Canalys, which combines tablet and PC sales, finds that the Apple iPad lead the market to see a 7 percent increase in the first quarter.

Led by the Apple iPad, worldwide PC shipments increased 7 percent during the first quarter, according to research firm Canalys, which includes tablets in its counts of PC sales, rather than listing them separately.

PC shipments during the quarter totaled 88.6 million units, up from 82.8 million a year ago, while tablet shipments reach 6.4 million units worldwide.

"Apple continued with its strategy to dominate the pad market," Canalys said in an April 28 statement, "with the iPad or iPad 2 available in 59 markets by the end of Q1."

Apple accounted for 74 percent of the tablet market during the quarter, the report added, despite iPad shipments being down 31 percent sequentially. Consumers held off from buying the iPad after Apple announced in March that its iPad 2 would soon launch across additional markets.

On April 27, Apple announced that the iPad 2--which is 33 percent thinner and 15 percent lighter than its predecessor--would arrive in Japan the following day, and in Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore and eight other countries on April 29. The full impact of the iPad 2, according to Canalys, won't be known until future quarters.

Despite Apple's dominance and uncontested success, Canalys nonetheless expects to see a "significant change" in tablet market shares next quarter, as new devices arrive from LG Electronics, Research In Motion, Acer and Asus. That should come as good news, as rising tablet sales are said to come at the cost of PC manufacturers focused on consumer netbooks and notebooks--particularly Acer and Asus.

"Overstocked retail channels and unsteady consumer confidence in major European countries and the United States cast a shadow over the potential for notebook market growth during the remainder of 2011," stated the report. "Likewise, the tsunami and earthquakes in Japan led to an 8% slowdown in the local PC market there. The natural disasters also contributed to supply chain disruption and uncertainty--highlighted in many IT vendors' quarterly financial reports--the consequences of which will continue to be felt in the second half of the year."